Conventionally, a pointing device has been known as an input device in a computer system.
Such a pointing device is operated to move a pointer displayed on a display screen to select a menu displayed on the display screen or designate an object displayed on the display screen, for example.
Normally, only one pointing device is connected to one computer system, and work is performed in a computer system by using the connected pointing device.
In this occasion, only one pointer corresponding to one pointing device is displayed on the display screen, by using pointing device the work is performed while operating the one pointer to move.
Therefore, as it will be explained below, there was a case where efficient work could not be performed in a work using the pointing device.
For example, in an electrical design field or the like, electrical design is generally performed by using an electrical design CAD system being a CAD system that is a designing system supported by a computer system.
In the work of electrical design, when an operator performs filleting (fillet) to a desired line bending part out of a plurality of lines that constitute a wiring harness, the operator naturally performs a work of confirming a line bending part being a target to be filleted previously on the display screen. This work can be done easier if a pointing device is operated to move the pointer to find a bending part being a target to be filleted while the pointer is used as a mark (refer to FIG. 1(a)).
The operator performs processing in a procedure below. The operator, after confirming the line bending part being the target to be filleted on the display screen as described above, performs a predetermined operation to display a menu window on the display screen, moves the pointer to “fillet” which is one of menu items displayed in the menu window to select it by using the pointing device (refer to FIG. 1(b)), after that, moves the pointer to a previously found line bending part being the target to be filleted to select it by using the pointing device, and inputs a numerical value of radius R in filleting by a character input device or the like.
At this point, in selecting the menu item “fillet” displayed on the menu window, the pointer that was used as a mark of the work of confirming the line bending part being the target to be filleted previously on the display screen is moved to the position of “fillet” displayed in the menu window.
Consequently, the operator has a difficulty in immediately determining which bending part of which line of the wiring harness should be filleted (refer to FIG. 1(c)), and the operator has to find a lost fillet line bending part again, by which a design work is interrupted while he/she tries to find the line bending part to be filleted.
Further, in the case of designating a line bending part being the target to be filleted by enlarging a displayed image, the displayed image on the display screen is enlarged by performing a predetermined operation to display the menu window on the display screen and moving the pointer to “enlarge” which is one of menu items displayed in the menu window to select it (refer to FIG. 1(d)), and the operator finds the line bending part being the target to be filleted referring to the enlarged displayed image.
At this point, since the displayed image on the display screen after being enlarged was enlarged by using the central coordinate of the displayed image before being enlarged as the center, there is a case where the line bending part being the target to be filleted is not displayed in the displayed image after being enlarged.
In such a case, the operator has to find the line bending part being the target to be filleted by scrolling the displayed image, or the like, the operator has a difficulty in immediately determining which bending part of which line in the wiring harness should be filleted (refer to FIG. 1(e)), and the operator has to find a lost fillet line bending part again, by which a design work is interrupted while he/she tries to find the line bending part to be filleted.
Furthermore, in a case where long time was taken for the work of finding the fillet bending part or the like in the above-described situation, there is a case where the operator forges even a numerical value of the radius R to be inputted to the character input device. In this case, the operator needed to review data being edited to calculate a numerical value of the radius R again.
It is to be noted that the processing of filleting the line bending part in performing the above-described electrical design is merely an example of a design work in electrical design, and in the case of performing electrical design by using the pointer that is operated to be moved by the pointing device, reduction of various work efficiency similar to what was described above was caused.
Particularly, in design environment using a pointer that is repeatedly operated to be moved by the pointing device for hundreds or thousands of times, time of the above-described work interruption is accumulated in proportion to the number of operations, so that work efficiency was significantly reduced.
Further, the pointing device connected to a computer is operated by the dominant hand of the operator, dependence on the dominant hand of the operator is extremely high when conducting a work, and the operator could not use both hands efficiently.
Specifically, a case where the operator performs filleting to a desired line bending part by using a mouse as the pointing device is considered, for example. The operator selects an item “fillet” from a menu displayed in the menu window by the mouse operated by his or her dominant hand (refer to FIG. 2(a)), selects a line bending part to be filleted by the mouse operated by his or her dominant hand (refer to FIG. 2(b)), and inputs a numerical value of the radius R by a character input device operated by fingers of his or her dominant hand (refer to FIG. 2(c)).
Specifically, in the above-described work, operations are performed by the dominant hand of the operator, and the non-dominant hand of the operator is not used.
In short, in operating a computer by using the pointing device, characters are inputted by using both hands on the character input device when inputting characters, but only the dominant hand of the operator is used in many other operations.
In the case of operating a computer by using the pointing device in this manner, operations highly dependent on the dominant hand of the operator are generally used, but if an unused hand, that is, the non-dominant hand can be efficiently used, a more efficient work can be performed in such works using a computer.
As explained above, works of the operator using the pointing device by a conventional technique have a problem that work interruption or the like of the operator occurs and an efficient work cannot be performed, and proposal of an input information processing technique which enables the operator to efficiently perform work without interruption has been desired.
It is to be noted that prior art that the present applicant knows at the point of filing a patent is not an invention known to the public through publication, so there is no prior art document information to be described in the present specification.